To:A. G. SHLYAPNIKOV

Written:Written May 19, 1916Published:First published in 1964 inCollected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 49.

      Sent from Zurich to Christiania.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1977],

      Moscow,Volume 43,

      pages538b-539.Translated:Martin Parker and Bernard IsaacsTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Ireceived your nervy
letter[2]and hasten to answer you immediately. You have obviously been
fretting a good deal. You have no reason to. Everything has been sent to
you. If you haven’t received anything, then one or another censor has not
let it through. Zina assures me that she has sent you everything, and if
she says she has, she has.

Ifthe censor does not let things through, one must havepatience, patience, and persistence. Expect another letter from N. K.

Ihave read the
material.[3]A lot of splendid stuff. Especially the article on the war
industries committees. Altogether, the collector of this material has done
a splendid job—my sincerest greetings to him again and again.

Ihave already written to you about the absolute necessity of
terminatingalltalks with the laps & Co. and I stand by
this.A year(!!)has passedsince “the differences”,
and the people have not been thinking, not been working, only hiding behind
others’ backs and talking scandal. If they still fail to understand that it
is dishonest (to throw the responsibility ontous, forIam responsible ifIform a bloc with anEditorial Boardof muddleheaded views), then they are hopeless. And if they want to
“publish” and bear the responsibilitythemselves, then let them
publish the pamphlet themselves, they have the money; it’s no use hiding
behind others. Let them give an article to the
C.O.themselves—weshall put it in!!

Wemust thinkseriouslyabout
Belenin,[4]please think of it, I beg you. The laps are obviously
incapable of doing transport work. Is there anybody else in the
				 town[1]where Belenin recently was? Couldn’t be give this job to some foreigner
(they are better than the Russians: more reliable, if slower)? If Belenin
is to go away, it shouldn’t be for more than 1/2 year. It would be better
though to find work in Copenhagen: I’m sure that’s possible. How much does
Belenin need a month to live on?Answer. Put off all personal
cares and think, in the interests of the cause, how best Belenin can fix
himself up for 1/2 year. Frankly, he will only wear his nerves thin among
the laps. They are shallow, mean people, really! I wish you all the best,
and beg for two words of immediate reply.

Yours,Lenin

[1]MeaningChristiania.—Ed.

[2]Inhis letter of May 13, 1916, Shlyapnikov urgently requested that all
materials on the Kienthal Conference should be sent to him, and expressed
dissatisfaction at the great delays in receiving the
I.S.C.Bulletin, the Swiss newspapers and other necessary
material.

[3]Thisrefers to the great body of materials which Shlyapnikov collected
during his stay in Russia. Prominent among them were documents relating to
the activities of the war industries committees. Some of them were
published in the Party’s Central Organ—the newspaperSotsial-Demokrat—on April 13, 1916, under the general heading
“News from Russia”. Shlyapnikov’s article “The Workers and the War
Industries Committees” was published in the same section.

[4]Forreasons of secrecy Lenin calls Shlyapnikov Belenin. This letter
concerns his forthcoming trip to America. Shlyapnikov left for the States
on June 25, 1916, and returned to Europe on September 29 the same year.